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Friday, 1 October 2010

September DB's challenge....was blue !!!

September DB's challenge was about Sugar cookies, I am not so good in that because i simply made those two or three times in the whole life......piping sugar paste "because i would never do the royal icing with raw eggs"was not easy for me...my hand usually shakes....I should admit that I am not good in that...anyway I decided at the last moment to make it although i have a lot of cookies remained from our feast.

The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of “What the Fruitcake?!” Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.

It was our choice to choose the theme....I did.....it is about envy and the blue evil eye !!!

The evil eye is a look that is superstitiously believed by many cultures to be able to cause injury or bad luck for the person at whom it is directed for reasons of envy or dislike. The term also refers to the power attributed to certain persons of inflicting injury or bad luck by such an envious or ill-wishing look.

Egyptians do beleive in it...that influence their daily habits sometimes.

In Islam It is tradition among many Muslims, that if a compliment is to be made, you are always supposed to say "Masha'Allah" (ما شاء الله) to ward off the evil eye and also (لا قوة إلا بالله; it literally means "It is as God has willed." It is a testimony from someone that he/she believes that either good or bad will only happen if God wants it to.

In ancient Egypt The Eye of Horus – Horus was an ancient Egyptian sky god in the form of a falcon. The right eye represents a peregrine falcon's eye and the markings around it, that includes the "teardrop" marking sometimes found below the eye. The right eye of Horus is said to ward off the evil eye in the ancient Egyptian culture. In modern Egypt, Islamic charms and amulets such as the hamsa are used.

What is "hamsa"??

The hamsa (Arabic: خمسة ‎, khamsa, lit. five, also romanized khamsa and chamsa) is a palm-shaped amulet popular throughout the Middle East and North Africa.The hamsa is often incorporated in jewelry and wall hangings, as a defense against the evil eye,It is believed to originate in ancient practices associated with the Phoenicians of Carthage.

Should talk about the recipe now....I used the original recipe but I put less sugar...we consumed a lot of sugar during our feast and i gained of course more weight.

I did not make the royal icing as we do not eat raw eggs. So I went with the eggless icing.I used paste colors to tint my icing in BLUE ;))

• Cream together the butter, sugar and any flavourings you’re using. Beat until just becoming creamy in texture.

• Tip: Don’t over mix otherwise you’ll incorporate too much air and the cookies will spread duringbaking, losing their shape.

• Beat in the egg until well combined, make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl.Add the sifted flour and mix on low until a non sticky dough forms.

• Tip: I don’t have a stand mixer so I find it easier to switch to dough hooks at this stage to avoidflour flying everywhere.

• Knead into a ball and divide into 2 or 3 pieces.

• Roll out each portion between parchment paper to a thickness of about 5mm/1/5 inch (0.2 inch)

• Refrigerate for a minimum of 30mins.

• Tip: Recipes commonly just wrap the whole ball of dough in clingwrap and then refrigerate it for anhour or overnight, but by rolling the dough between parchment, this shortens the chilling time andthen it’s also been rolled out while still soft making it easier and quicker.

• Once chilled, peel off parchment and place dough on a lightly floured surface.

• Cut out shapes with cookie cutters or a sharp knife.

• Arrange shapes on parchment lined baking sheets and refrigerate for another 30mins to an hour.

• Tip: It’s very important you chill them again otherwise they’ll spread while baking.

• Re-roll scraps and follow the above process until all scraps are used up.

• Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C Fan Assisted) / 350°F / Gas Mark 4.

• Bake until golden around the edges, about 8-15mins depending on the size of the cookies.

• Tip: Bake same sized cookies together otherwise mixing smaller with larger cookies could result insome cookies being baked before others are done.